The Night of Long Knives Paperback Cover 1973

Don Ivan Punchatz made this cover for "The Night of Long Knives." The dark background sucks you in, doesn't it? Then you notice the central figure, bound up tight, surrounded by ghostly figures. Punchatz’s strokes seem almost hesitant, yet firm, like he’s trying to capture something fleeting, something he can barely look at. You can feel the tension of the artist in every brushstroke. The artist's focus seems to be on the idea of power, and how power corrupts and destroys. It's all there in the unsettling colours and the composition. It's really heavy. And I'm reminded, like, these artists, they’re all talking to each other, right? Punchatz is definitely talking to us, and he’s talking to Goya.